ἔρημος ~ ἐρήμου (noun f.): desert
θρίξ ~ τριχός (noun f.): hair, fur
ἀήρ ~ ἀέρος (noun m.): air
σάρξ ~ σαρκός (noun f.): flesh, meat
πνεῦμα ~ πνεύματος (noun n.): breath, spirit
Φωνὴ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ.
Λέων τὴν τρίχα, ὄνος τόν βίον.
Ἅπας μὲν ἀὴρ αἰετῷ περάσιμος.
Τὸ μὲν πνεῦμα πρόθυμον ἡ δὲ σὰρξ ἀσθενής.
Τὸ γὰρ γράμμα ἀποκτέινει, τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα ζῳοποιεῖ.
And now, some commentary:
Φωνὴ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ.
The voice of one shouting in the desert.
These words appear in all four Gospels — Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John — referring to John the Baptist, echoing the prophet Isaiah. The word φωνὴ (as in English telephone, etc.) is a feminine noun of the first declension, while the word ἔρημος (as in English hermit, etc.) is a feminine noun of the second declension.
Λέων τὴν τρίχα, ὄνος τὸν βίον.
A lion (judging by its) fur, a donkey (by its) lifestyle.
This saying alludes to the famous Aesop's fable about the donkey in the lion skin: it looks like a lion, but it acts like a donkey. However, in his note to this proverb Apostolius reports a different story about a man who found a lion cub and raised it. The man then used the lion to draw a wagon; hence the proverb. The story has a sad ending: when people saw the lion acting in this shameful and undignified way, they killed it. Of course, things don't turn out well for the donkey in the lion-skin either! You can see the root τρίχ- in trichotillomania.
Ἅπας μὲν ἀὴρ αἰετῷ περάσιμος.
All the sky is open to the eagle.
This is a fragment from the "Phaethon" of Euripides, and the following line of the fragment reads: ἅπασα δὲ χθὼν ἀνδρὶ γενναίῳ πατρίς, "all the earth is a fatherland for a noble man," which is a saying discussed in an earlier blog post. Greek ἀὴρ gives us English "air."
Τὸ μὲν πνεῦμα πρόθυμον ἡ δὲ σὰρξ ἀσθενής.
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
The words are from the Gospel of Mark, when Jesus rebukes Peter for falling asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane. The words also appear in the Gospel of Matthew. In the adjective πρόθυμον, you can see the word θυμός, which has a wide range of meaning in Greek: spirit, desire, will, courage, anger; see Logeion for more. You can see σὰρξ in English words like "sarcoma" and "sarcophagus."
Τὸ γὰρ γράμμα ἀποκτέινει, τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα ζῳοποιεῖ.
The letter kills, but the spirit creates life.
The words come from 2 Corinthians in the Bible. You can find out more about the enduring and broad significance of this Biblical phrase in the Wikipedia article: Letter and spirit of the law. From the root of Greek πνεῦμα, we get English words like "pneumatic" and "pneumonia."
And here's a random proverb and a random LOLCat too :
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